Ebola Fakers: Outbreak Spurs Disease Fraudsters

The Ebola crisis has spawned a slate of fake cures and fraudulent treatments peddled online. But the virus has also led to a handful of bogus cases around the country, according to news reports. Among them:

An Ohio woman told health workers her sister had recently traveled to Africa, evidently thinking she would get a faster EMS response. She was right, and according to The Columbus Dispatch, which reported emergency services responded "as if the woman really did have Ebola — they wore hazmat suits and roped off the house with crime-scene tape."

A Mississippi man called a fire station saying a friend with Ebola symptoms was headed their way, WREG reported. Firefighters called the health department and confined the man in his vehicle before he admitted it was a prank.

A newly booked Nevada inmate took a trip to the hospital after claiming to have Ebola symptoms, according to The Las Vegas Review-Journal. Testing at a hospital proved the Ebola claim to be untrue and further investigation revealed that the inmate had never traveled out of the U.S.

An Oklahoma woman visited a hospital complaining of fever and claiming she contracted the disease from an African student. While examining her, nurses realized the woman was intoxicated and, according to KSWO, she "began faking seizures and head butting nurses." The woman was cleared at the hospital, arrested, and charged with assault and disturbing the peace.

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